


No Matter What

by un1verseisscreaming



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Christopher Diaz is a National Treasure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Evan "Buck" Buckley is Christopher Diaz's Parent, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Hurt Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), M/M, Realization, character injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 06:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30084624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/un1verseisscreaming/pseuds/un1verseisscreaming
Summary: He knows that this life they live isn’t suited for everyone, and how could a teacher-turned-vice-principal be prepared for a life filled with worst-case scenarios becoming reality? So, he just nods, gives her a soft smile, and says, “Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s tough enough, and you add a kid to the mix, no matter how amazing that kid is, it’s a lot. I understand. I’m sure Eddie will. Don’t worry about them, I’ve got them.”-or-When Eddie suffers from a brain injury that leaves him in the hospital, Buck steps in and takes care of Chris until Eddie returns home.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 539
Collections: Finished 911 Stories I Love





	No Matter What

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! Thanks for your kind responses to my first fic, I appreciate it. I felt inspired to write this after seeing some speculation about Eddie getting hurt this season...this is how I imagine things would go. Hope you enjoy! (PS this is a COVID-free story)

“I can’t…I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”

The first time Buck meets Ana Flores, they’re standing outside of Eddie’s hospital room. When she arrives looking frazzled, he’s already wary. But when she sees Eddie and hears the diagnosis from the doctor, she turns to him with wide eyes, and he _knows_ that this is the last time he’ll be seeing Ana Flores.

It had been a normal call on a relatively easy shift, a dumbass kid who decided to get up on the library roof and needed to get down. Eddie, who was ready for the shift to be over, had been the first one to volunteer to go up on the ladder and get the kid down. It should have been easy, safe. But the roof had given out and dropped Eddie two stories onto the ground. His head had been hit hard, and while the doctors are certain that he’ll wake up, they don’t know how much of his memory will be affected. It’s just so _stupid_ and Buck wonders how the hell they got here and why the universe decided to turn such a silly call into this mess.

Now, Ana keeps looking between Eddie and Buck, chewing on her lip. “Is Christopher…? Um, who’s going to take care of Christopher?”

Buck just straightens himself, the weight of the situation starting to hurt his posture, and peers down at her. He smiles softly. “As long as I’m here, Chris will be taken care of.” He glances back at Eddie. “This isn’t going to be easy, the kid’s been through enough. But he’s got me. And we’ll get Eddie back to his normal self.”

He returns his gaze to Ana, who is crossing her arms and blinking back tears. “I’ve heard a lot about you, you know. Chris is always talking about you, Eddie too. I’m glad they have you. I just—" She tightens her hold on herself. “I don’t think I understood what I was signing up for here. I didn’t realize how dangerous, how…I just didn’t know.” She peers up at him, looking like she expects to be yelled at.

And while Buck 2.0 might have snapped at her, wounds fresh from Ali leaving in the same way, Buck 3.0 is more understanding. He knows that this life they live isn’t suited for everyone, and how could a teacher-turned-vice-principal be prepared for a life filled with worst-case scenarios becoming reality? So, he just nods, gives her a soft smile, and says, “Don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s tough enough, and you add a kid to the mix, no matter how amazing that kid is, it’s a lot. I understand. I’m sure Eddie will. Don’t worry about them, I’ve got them.”

She nods, gives one last look to Eddie, and walks away.

Buck never sees Ana Flores again.

***

“I didn’t want to lose anyone else, and now I don’t have Dad!” Christopher shoves past him and goes to his room. Buck half expects to hear the door slam, but the sounds never comes.

He stays seated on the coffee table, hands shaking, taking a minute before going after Chris. He hates this, all of it. He wants everything to have been a bad dream, prays that Eddie will walk through the front door any minute, start rolling up his sleeves, and crack jokes at him. But he doesn’t. Buck takes a deep breath and wrings his hands together, standing up and heading to Chris’s room. He finds him face-down on the bed, crying.

Buck stays quiet, sits on the edge of the bed, running his hand over Chris’s back, letting him know he’s there. He knows Chris will talk when he’s ready.

After a while—Buck’s lost track of time—Chris sits up and curls himself into Buck, holding on tight.

“Is he really going to come back, Buck?” His voice is so quiet, Buck’s heart drops.

“Yeah buddy. But uh…he might not be himself for a little while. That’s why we have to work together to take good care of him, right? You and me.” He rubs circles into the back of his head. “Remember what I said about grandma and Carla? It’s the same thing, kid. Dad’ll come back to us, but until then we have each other. You’ve got me. Okay?”

Chris tightens his hold and nods. “Okay. Hey Buck?”

“Yeah buddy?”

“I’m glad you’re here.”

Thirty minutes later, Buck cries himself to sleep in Eddie’s bed. 

***

“So I heard from my friends at the hospital that they’re thinking Eddie is going to wake up soon.”

Hen sits next to Buck in the loft, pressing a cup of coffee into his hands. She gives him a look of pity, her eyes sad. “How’s Chris?”

Buck places the coffee mug down and sags into the couch. “He’s okay, he’s restless you know? Everyday wakes up wondering if we’ll hear something from the doctors, and I have to tell him that we still don’t know anything.” He lets out a deep breath. “Is it bad that I’m dreading him waking up?” When Hen’s eyebrows raise, he talks faster. “I mean, I want him awake, but I’m scared that when he does wake up, he will have amnesia and he won’t remember us, and I can honestly deal with it, it’ll hurt, but Chris…I mean I’ve prepared him for it, but I just don’t want him to go through that, I—”

“Buck, Buck…hey.” Hen grabs his arms and rubs circles into his skin. “Breathe. Eddie is a fighter. I know I should be putting my paramedic, soon to be doctor hat on, but…I also believe in miracles. And I think Eddie is due for one. So is Chris. So are you. Don’t lose hope just yet. Don’t worry about the worst case scenario. You worry about taking care of that boy. I trust that things will work out. Everything happens for a reason.”

And while Buck appreciates the sentiment, he still can’t help but worry.

***

“Welcome back, Mr. Diaz!”

Brown eyes blink back at them, confusion apparent.

Buck bounces from foot to foot, glances back and forth between Eddie and the doctors. He got the call this morning that Eddie had woken up, and with one nod of approval from Bobby was out of the firehouse and on his way. He’s been here for thirty minutes and no one has said anything yet about amnesia, but judging by the look on Eddie’s face, he isn’t getting his hopes up. One of the interns is rambling off about Eddie’s stats, and a nurse is checking his vitals. Eddie looks confused as ever, and Buck would laugh if it were any other time. Eddie looks like he’s two seconds away from punching someone. He looks around the room, trying to understand what the doctors are saying, and then his gaze lands on Buck. Buck feels his heart pound, finds it hard to breathe. He isn’t sure if he’s ready for this blow.

But then-

“Buck, what the hell is going on here?!”

Buck nearly passes out.

***

Silence.

As Buck drives Eddie home from the hospital a few days later, the car is filled with silence. He swears he can hear Eddie’s brain churning a mile a minute, surely coming up with tons of questions for later, but for now, there’s just silence.

Buck grips the steering wheel a little tighter, his own mind starting to turn. His heart beats a little faster as he thanks the universe for not taking Eddie’s memory away, for not making Chris have to deal with that loss too. He thinks he knows what questions Eddie will have, so he tries to think of some answers. Not that the answers are hard to think of, they all boil down to: _I have your back._ (Okay, the answer is really _I love you_ , but he’s not going to say that.)

He pulls into the Diaz driveway and glances at Eddie when he hears a sharp intake of breath. Eddie’s lips are pursed, and tears are welling in his eyes. 

Silence. And then-

“I promised I wouldn’t leave him again, and I did.”

Buck whips around in his seat faster than his back would prefer, grabs Eddie’s face and forces him to look at him.

“You didn’t leave on purpose. You got _hurt_. He knows that. Chris is a smart kid, the smartest actually. He doesn’t think you left him on purpose, okay? He knows you got hurt, and he’s in there thinking that there’s a chance you might not even know who he is. So, you walking through that front door and greeting him? That’s going to make him so happy. This is a happy moment, don’t get in your head about it.”

Eddie blinks back at him and breathes out a short laugh. “I’ve been in my head for weeks already, so you have a point.”

Buck lets go and smiles.

***

“Hi Dad.”

Christopher hovers in the doorway, glancing at Buck with hesitation. Buck smiles, pushing Eddie forward. Eddie kneels down and grabs Christopher by the shoulders. “Hi mijo.” He brushes hair out of Chris’s face and smiles. “I’m back now, everything is going to be okay.”

And Chris collapses into his arms, hiccuping from laughing and crying all at once. 

Buck watches over them, fighting back tears of his own.

***

“Buck, I can’t find my workbook!”

Eddie is sitting at the kitchen table, watching with awe and amusement the way that Buck and his son whirl around each other, prepping for the day ahead. Buck has already put down a plate of waffles and fruit in front of him and is now carefully putting together a lunchbox for Chris, who is going back and forth between eating breakfast and packing his backpack. The ease in which Buck and Chris talk to one another and move around each other is new to Eddie, and he wonders if it really is new, or if he just never noticed before.

“Buddy, it’s on the desk in your room, I saw it when I woke you up.” Buck zips up the lunch box and hands it to Chris, who runs back to his room and returns seconds later with a smile and his workbook.

“You’re the best, Buck.”

Buck’s eyes sparkle in response. The sound of the school bus rattles outside, and Chris hurriedly puts all of his belongings together. He hugs Eddie tightly before following Buck to the bus.

When Buck comes back in, he slouches down next to Eddie and steals his coffee. Eddie just sits and stares at him.

“What?”

Eddie shakes his head, never looking away. “You really took care of Chris by yourself the whole time?”

Buck puts the coffee down and shrugs. “Wasn’t it you who said it isn’t very hard? No but seriously, I’d do it any day. I love that kid.”

Eddie nods and moves his fruit around in the bowl. “So, um…Ana Flores?”

Buck purses his lips and takes a long sip of coffee. “She, uh, she wasn’t ready. You know? I don’t think she fully understood the risks of our jobs. I told her you’d understand.”

He does. It’s a lot to take on what just happened, to take care of Chris. And yet…

“You stepped in and took care of Chris. No questions asked. You just did it. And I’m assuming you were prepared to take care of me if I had…I had amnesia?”

Buck shifts in his seat to face him. “Hell yeah. I meant it when I said I have your back. I’m here, Eddie, no matter what. You know, I made a promise to Chris that he has me, and I promise you that too. I’m here. I know you would do the same for me. Hell, you have.”

Eddie stares for a few seconds longer than he should, and when Buck starts to squirm, he reaches out and grabs his hands. 

“Buck, I think I have really been misreading our friendship this entire time.” When he feels Buck tense, he moves his hands to his shoulders. “Stop panicking. What I mean is…the last thing I remember is going to a stupid call with a kid on a roof, wanting to get done fast because I had a date with Ana lined up. I was excited for the date because Ana was starting to feel like she could fit into my home life, be my partner with Chris. But then I get dropped on my head and am knocked out, I wake up and come home to…you. You and Chris. You parenting Chris right in front of me, you parenting Chris for _weeks_ while I was in the hospital.”

“Eddie, I’m sorry if I overstepped—"

“Buck, stop. Look at me.” Eddie moves his hands to Buck’s face and forces him to look him in the eyes. “What I was looking for, what I was trying to make…it’s something I already have. I have it with you, Buck. I misread our friendship because…because this isn’t a friendship, Buck. This is so much more than that. You’re my partner, you’re a dad to Chris, you’re…you’re… _everything_.”

Buck’s eyes are shining with tears now, and he lets out a small laugh. “Eddie, should I be concerned that this is some kind of side effect from your head injury? Because it sounds too good to be true. Like, I love you, I really do, and I want this more than anything, but if you’re having an episode—”

Eddie shuts him up with a kiss.


End file.
